Abstract

Background

Ideally the length of the Intraaortic balloon membrane (22-27.5 cm) should match to
the distance from the left subclavian artery (LSA) to the celiac axis (CA), (LSA -
CA). By being able to estimate this distance, better guidance regarding IABP sizing
could be recommended.

Methods

Internal aortic lengths and demographic values were collected from a series of 40
cadavers during autopsy. External somatometric measurements were also obtained.

There were 23 males and 17 females. The mean age was 73.1+/-13.11 years, weight 56.75+/-12.51
kg and the height 166+/-9.81 cm.

Conclusions

Routinely, IABP size selection is being dictated by the patient's height. Inevitably,
this leads to pitfalls. We reported a mathematical model of accurate intraaortic balloon
sizing, which is easy to be applied and has a high predictive value.